A blog dedicated to the discussion of topics relating to the history of Sandusky and Erie County, Ohio, the Lake Erie Islands, and nearby communities; inspired by the collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center and Follett House Museum. A service of the Sandusky Library.

Sunday, June 21, 2015

The Terminal Inn, on the Downtown Waterfront

In May of 1903 the Terminal Inn opened in downtown
Sandusky at the foot of Columbus Avenue, close to the passenger steamer docks
and railroad tracks. The Inn featured a cigar store, café, and a large waiting
area for visitors to Sandusky. The proprietors of the Terminal Inn were Adam
Stoll and William Finley. You can see visitors peering over the balcony of the
Terminal Inn in the close up view below.

In the early hours on the morning on June 21, 1904,
a massive fire destroyed almost an entire block of Sandusky’s waterfront, north
of Railroad Street (now Shoreline Drive) from the Jackson Street slip to the
Columbus Avenue slip. Over $150,000 worth of property was destroyed (about $4 million in today's value), including
the Terminal Inn, Booth Fish Company, and a building owned by the Gilcher and
Schuck Lumber Company. Detailed accounts of the fire appeared in the Sandusky Register and the Sandusky Star, nowavailable on microfilm at the Sandusky Library Archives Research
Center. Though the Terminal Inn was in business in Sandusky for a short time, a
plate depicting the Terminal Inn and Sandusky’s waterfront is now housed in the
collections of the Follett House Museum. Mrs. Marjorie Owings, longtime staff
member of Sandusky Library, donated the plate to the museum.